Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo romped to another MotoGP pole position at Motegi this afternoon, heading title challenger Dani Pedrosa to make it his 50th pole start while Britain's Cal Crutchlow bagged another front-row.
Setting a new track record with the only time in the 1'44s, Lorenzo pushed Repsol Honda Pedrosa into second on the grid, after the Spaniard had looked set for top spot right at the end. Monster Yamaha's Crutchlow completes the row in third, with the Coventry man doing very well to save a near crash after scoring his seventh front row start this season.
Heading row two is Yamaha’s Ben Spies, who suffered an awkward crash in the dying seconds of the session, yet did not obstruct anyone on their hot lap. Lining up next to him in fifth is San Carlo Gresini’s Álvaro Bautista, after his and the team’s suspension set-up work looked to be yielding the positive results they were looking for.
Sixth spot is occupied by Crutchlow’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who appeared to be on-course for a higher grid spot, but could not squeeze out those extra tenths needed. Casey Stoner heads the third row in seventh, with the Australian still struggling slightly with the bike on his return from injury. Alongside him in eighth is LCR Honda'Stefan Bradl, who’s session got off to a bad start with a crash, although the German managed to head back out for the latter part of qualifying.
Ninth position went to Ducati Team’s Valentino Rossi, with the Italian not finding the one-off pace that helped him jump up the ranks in yesterday’s timesheets. His teammate Nicky Hayden completes the top ten, with the American still suffering significant discomfort from his fractured right radius. Power Electronics Aspar’s Aleix Espargaró took top CRT spot in 13th, consolidating the form he has shown all weekend.
There were numerous other crashes throughout the session with San Carlo’s Michele Pirro dropping his bike early on, with Paul Bird Motorsport’s James Ellison and Cardion AB Racing’s Karel Abraham also following suit at the end of the session. Fortunately none of the riders were seriously hurt in the crashes.
